BNP backs loyalist bandsman…

THE Irish News reports that loyalists have applied to hold a demonstration in south Belfast next month in support of Pride of the Raven flute band (see vid) official George Spence, after he received a letter from Alliance MLA Anna Lo (pictured). Spence said he believed the letter – sent after the Chinese Assembly member received a complaint from a nurse that she couldn’t get to work during a previous parade – had put his life in danger, as the envelope had his name and the band’s on the front. The BNP has taken up his case, saying “pseudo-politician” Ms Lo is “is not fit for purpose”. Up to 40 bands and 3,200 participants are expected to march a circuitous route to take in Belfast’s loyalist Donegall Pass, also home to a large number of Chinese people. The Parades Commission might not see this as conducive to good community relations – although this would be the first time that it would be a non-nationalist/republican community being wound up. Ms Lo, who apologised to Mr Spence, said: “This parade is having to make a major detour just to go through Donegall Pass. People feel it’s for no other reason than to show the Chinese community who’s boss.” A spokesman for the rally’s organisers denied that the parade would intimidate either Mrs Lo or the Chinese community. “The fact that Anna Lo is Chinese is irrelevant to the issue at hand,” he said. The news comes after a day after Robert Spence, a thug who helped attack a house full of Polish workers on south Belfast’s Donegall Road, was jailed for six years.